Kirkby · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Kirkby workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Kirkby
Kirkby is a post-war overspill new town of around 42,000 in Merseyside's Knowsley borough, built north-east of Liverpool around one of the largest industrial estates in Europe and the Tower Hill and Northwood estates.
The signature trade is food and logistics - the food and drink manufacturing, the advanced manufacturing and engineering, and the logistics and plastics - across the Knowsley Industrial Park and Knowsley Business Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Kirkby process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Knowsley Industrial Park plant to the single-bench Kirkby units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Kirkby and the wider Merseyside it is your evidence under COSHH.
Powder-dust, steam and cooking-vapour extraction across the food-production and nutrition lines of the industrial estate, a long-standing trade of the town, where blending, cooking and packing lines need capture at source.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and grinding-dust extraction across the metal-fabrication and automotive-supply units, where metal fume and dust need capture proven.
Battery-charging, forklift-exhaust and moulding-fume extraction across the vast fulfilment and plastics-processing units, where the charging bays and moulding lines each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Knowsley Industrial Park and Knowsley Business Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Kirkby bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Knowsley College and Whiston Hospital in nearby Prescot, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Kirkby
We are out under Kirkby's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A food-production plant in Kirkby had a powder-and-steam extraction over a blending-and-packing line pulling weak, letting fine powder and cooking vapour drift into the hall. We measured the capture at the line and checked the collector and ducting for losses. It failed on the low capture and the dust breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. Fine organic powder is a combustion risk, so the housekeeping around the collector was logged alongside the airflow.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Kirkby system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Knowsley Industrial Park units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on a Kirkby line.
Where exposure is in question - a food and drink manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
For most Kirkby sites - from the Knowsley Industrial Park units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Kirkby site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Kirkby duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Knowsley Business Park floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A food and drink manufacturing bay, an advanced manufacturing and engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Kirkby workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is kitchen grease and fire risk. We do both across Kirkby, but a Knowsley Industrial Park fabrication shop and a St Chad's Parade canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Knowsley Industrial Park units, term-time access at the Kirkby university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a Knowsley Industrial Park unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Knowsley Industrial Park and Knowsley Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Merseyside.
Food and drink manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and engineering, logistics and plastics, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Knowsley Industrial Park and Knowsley Business Park and across the wider Merseyside.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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